After The Wedding

The story, and direction, are far too direct for their own good, making all reveals underwhelming and undersold

Left soothing its own wounds, After The Wedding is a disastrously melodramatic piece centralising around Isabel (Michelle Williams) as she heads to the wedding of her potential benefactor’s daughter after a bizarre, off the cuff, invitation. However, instead of mingling, Isabel discovers a deep secret she knew nothing about.

Continuously attempting to up itself, or explain itself, After The Wedding is far too self-involved to realise it really isn’t particularly revelatory. With predictable reveal after predictable reveal, all it actually manages is slowly climb the stairs to the realms of make believe, falling off the truth wagon and onto the eye-rolling road. The story, and direction, are far too direct for their own good, making all reveals underwhelming and undersold.

But, After The Wedding’s real weakness is its inability to use the incredible actors it has already wrapped into contracts. The story undermines everything Michelle Williams, Julianne Moore and Billy Crudup do, leaving them little room to actually show their characters. Without knowing much about them bar their main life’s focus and where they place their care, there’s a real feeling of being left out in the cold, despite the film playing host to some particularly warming themes.

Seeming to constantly take a step back when it’s intending to move forward, After The Wedding is not the film it should have been, nor is it close to being that. Despite being released by Sony Pictures Classics, After The Wedding will certainly not go down as a classic in any sense of the word.